5 Years in Prison for Releasing Balloons?!

(You're all under arrest!)

While large corporations and the uber rich spend their days dumping toxic waste in to rivers and building homes that use more electricity than entire neighborhoods, us regular people can be arrested and jailed for the simple environmental crime of releasing balloons in to the air.  According to Information Liberation:

When Anthony Brasfield released a dozen heart-shaped balloons into the sky over Dania Beach, Fla., for his sweetheart, all he wanted was to create the perfect atmosphere of romance. What he created instead was a court date.

According to the Sun-Sentinel newspaper, Brasfield's act of love was witnessed by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper. What he saw was not an act of love but a felony.

The 40-year-old Brasfield was with his girlfriend, Shaquina Baxter, in the parking lot of a Motel 6 on Dania Beach Boulevard when he released the 12 shiny, red and silver mylar balloons into the sky and watched them float away in the Sunday morning breeze.

They go on to say:

... The trooper saw nothing more than probable cause for a crime against the environment. Apparently, lawmakers in the Sunshine State think it's appropriate to treat what should have been, at most, simple littering (to which courts would have issued a fine, maybe?), into a major crime against Mother Nature. As if Florida jails weren't full enough.

And:

As you might imagine, the law is rarely used. According to the Sun-Sentinel, just 21 arrests were made under the environmental statute between 2008 and 2012.

What is amazing, however, is the severity of the crime - it is a third-degree felony that is punishable by up to five years in prison. Just as one example, in other parts of the country, people who intentionally or actively work to harm the environment get about the same jail time.

I know I say this alot, but I'll put money on the fact that if this was some white guy releasing balloons from his back yard this arrest would not have been made.  Because it was a black guy at a motel, no mercy!  Throw the book at him!  Wait a second, don't throw it while outdoors though, that would be considered a felony littering charge.

Dekalb County Police Officer Plants Drugs

For such a small boon dock county that no one has ever heard of, Dekalb County sure finds itself in the news for police abuses a bit too often.  Obviously this blog is named after the deplorable officers of Dekalb County Georgia and now today nearly a year after launching the blog I get another story out of these despicable excuses for cops.

This time an officer is caught on camera plantng drugs near a suspect who had already been searched twice.  Since they could not find anything on him of course they were forced to frame him.  This is America, a black man who is suspected of a crime, that can not be pinned on him, needs to be arrested one way or another for the general publics safety.

According to Information Liberation:

A man who claims a police officer planted drugs on him will have the charges dismissed one day before his case was set to go to trial.

Thank goodness the charges are being dropped, but of course this is already after he had been manhandled and treated like scum for a crime he did not commit.

The video shows Eleby vehemently protesting what he sees the officer do and the officer then puts him in a chokehold while other officers look on.

And root for him I am sure.  Because the police are the biggest, baddest gang in America.  When one of their members starts beating on an innocent civilian it's time to circle round and cheer him on.  What, he planted those drugs on the ground?  That makes no difference, because every cop on the scene is also corrupt and every cop at the station, also corrupt.  Every cop in America, more or less corrupt, and if they aren't they are afraid to say anything about those who are.

Coke Head Cops Don't Lose Jobs

According to Boston Herald:

Six Boston cops fired after testing positive for cocaine have been ordered reinstated — with back pay — after a state board struck down hair tests as 
unreliable in a bombshell ruling that could have a far-reaching impact on how city workers are drug-tested.

I'm relatively sure these same drug tests, or similar, are still used to re-incarcerate felons on parole or simple drug users on probation pretty much every day.  So my only concern here is that if these police officers are allowed to use cocaine and still keep their jobs will "convicted" criminals be given the same redemption?

To add insult to injury the excuses some of the officers made were outright ludicrous.  The article goes on to say:

Some of them made excuses for their failed tests, including Bridgeforth, who told the commission he may have had false positive tests because he brushed white powder off the seat of his cruiser, which he “assumed was confectionery powder from doughnuts.” He also said he lived in a townhouse that shared a heating vent with neighbors who were crack smokers, records state.

Bridgeman, meanwhile, told commissioners he believed his positive test was because he had a “habit of putting drugs ... from suspects in his pocket where he also kept cookies to eat.”

Police Perjury

(Picture not from actual raid, but one of the first that 

popped up when I searched Salt Lake City Swat)

The Salt Lake City police detective responsible for a SWAT team ramming the door of a wrong house last year and pointing guns at the elderly woman inside also misled the judge who issued the search warrant, according to documents released by the city.

The narcotics detective, Cooper Landvatter, received a 20-hour suspension for violating search-and-seizure policies, committing conduct unbecoming an officer, and violating what the Salt Lake City Police Department refers to as its "Core Values."

When a regular citizen misleads a judge is it called perjury and they are not violating "Core Values", they are violating the "Law".  When a police officer misleads a judge all it fine and dandy, it's expected, because their job is to convict people of crimes.  A corporations job is to make money for their stock holders, a car sales mans job is to push vehicles of the lot, and a police officers job, once again, is to convict people of crimes.  And just like a used car dealer or a CEO they will make that conviction at whatever cost it takes.  The truth be damned.

"The city has continually described [the raid] as a mistake," Clark said. "It’s not a mistake when an officer swears out a false warrant."

Landvatter also told investigators he felt pressure from his supervisors to obtain and serve a search warrant once a month. He referred to the requirement as a "quota." The review board report called that "a very poor policy," but said it did not contribute significantly to the incorrect raid.

The full story can be read at The Salt Lake Tribune.

Three Cases that are up for Debate

Make of these cases what you will.  Each of them can be argued in the defense of the officer or the victim, but either way one man almost lost his leg, another was shot in the back and the last was tasered to death.  You gotta love that main stream media gives the taser story a whole 30 seconds.  Investigative journalism, in depth coverage, actual concern for the welfare of others?  Nope, this is the news, we're too busy talking about celebrity gossip and political agendas to cover anything that might make you think critically or question the system.

Cop Kills Grandmother

'It was appalling and it hurt because I feel like they were cheering, rooting him on, for a death he caused,' her daughter, Annekquah Knight, said. 'They knew he was wrong. I think it's just because he was a trooper, and they look out for each other.'

Today I ran across yet another situation where a police officer killed someone, yet because they were on the job, faces absolutely no criminal charges.  This time it's a 51 year old woman who's car was rammed in to at 90 miles per hour and whose granddaughter was flung through the windshield.  The police officer who was on the way to a call without having his emergency lights on was fired, yet when brought to trial the officer who gave him the citation at the scene didn't show up, so the case was dismissed.  WHAT?!  This cop gets away with murder because one of his fellow cops decides not to show up to court that day?  According to informationliberation:

On February 10, 2012, McClellan, 34, was responding to a call about someone throwing rocks from an overpass as he drove through Gadsden County.

As he drove to the scene without his emergency lights on, he reached speeds of more than 100mph and lost control as he travelled around a bend, where the recommended speed was just 35 mph.

He smashed into Michelle Campbell's vehicle, throwing her 12-year-old granddaughter through the windshield and injuring her niece. Ms Campbell, 51, died hours later.

As if that wasn't enough to enrage one against the police, just guess how the other officers in the court house reacted when McCellan's case was dismissed.

A newly-released video of Detrick McClellan's court hearing shows how troopers in the court room laughed as a distracted judge dismissed the case, before they shook the officer's hand.

Congratulation on getting away with murder.  We're all so excited for you!  At the very least the officer lost his job, but is that really justice?

He was fired and cited with three traffic violations, careless driving, speeding, and failure to use his emergency lights.

In the Defense of Chris Dorner

Chris Dorner is an American Hero.  I know, I know, no one wants to admit it out loud.  I understand that the news reports claim that those of us supporting him online only do so because it is anonymously.  That we would never show support for the man to our friends and family in real life.  But this is not true.  I walked in to my apartment last night and almost immediately started to explain to my girlfriend why I thought Chris Dorner is the tragic hero in this week long manhunt.  What a way to begin our Valentines Day together.  

Sure MSNBC and Fox News can tell us he is crazy, that he is a vicious murderer and that his wallet was found in a completely burnt down house next to his charred body.  Sure CNN can play audio of police officers saying "bring in the burners" "we got fire"  and "let it burn through to the basement".  Yet instead of breaking the biggest news story of the decade "The LAPD Lies to National Media"  they cover it up by bringing in talking heads who defend the cops position that the fire was started on accident.  "Oh they must have been talking about the fire after it was started"  is what they say with no remorse.  

Instead of actually reporting the news these so called news agencies are activity covering it up.  Yet when someone tries to source Info Wars they are called crazy conspiracy theorists.  If someone tries to source The Young Turks they are just whiny liberals.  At the same time the entire country sources CNN and MSNBC when these channels are activity lying to them!  If the only thing Chris Dorner's case brought up in the national dialect was how media lies to us, then it was worth every bullet expended by both side.  

Yet media lies are just the tip of this ice berg.  What about the fact that bulky black men had to wear shirts that proclaimed they are not Chris Dorner and dark colored pick up trucks had to proclaim the same about their truck not being Dorners, in order to avoid being shot at.  What about the fact that this past week you were more likely to be shot by an LAPD officer than Chris Dorner?  What about the very relevant information shared in his manifesto about cops who break the rules and somehow advance in to leadership positions?  While an officer who tries to blow the whistle and cross the blue line is fired for the simple fact that he didn't allow the department to get away with moral and constitutional abuses.  

Chris Dorner is an American hero because he gave his life for our ability to start questioning the over arching abuses of police in not just LA but across the country.  He is a hero because instead of letting them destroy his life and dying in obscurity he went and got his revenge.  Isn't that what America does, seeks revenge for wrong doings.  According to the official story 18 Islamic jihadists attacked us on 9/11 and because of it we've been at war with Afghanistan for 12 years now.  They did us wrong so we invaded their country and started killing anything that moved.  Innocent or not did not matter.

Where is the difference between our national urge to revenge ourselves and the individual urge to do so?  When a man's life is taken from him and his name is completely ruined, that mans mind starts to do very odd things.  Can you even imagine the depths that such a happy looking guy had to have reached for him to finally decide to go on a killing spree?  Can you imagine the nights he spent all alone plotting such an elaborate scheme for revenge and the things that must have gone through his mind? 

Can you feel the pain he must have been going though to start taking the lives of others?  

Chris Dorner was a good man who wanted to help others.  He hated seeing rampant racism in the department, he could not stand seeing the physical abuse officers took part in against every day citizens, he was done watching the LAPD cover up anything that could create negative press about them or end the career of a seasoned white officer.  

Yet today, a couple days after Dorner's death, the LAPD must be starting their investigation in to the entire situation that took place on Big Bear Mountain.  Yep the LAPD will investigate themselves and reveal that they did everything according to procedure.  That's because they are going to straight up cover up and lie about what happened to Chris Dorner.  The saddest part is that because main stream media all go along with anything they say, the majority of Americans will never know the truth about one of their greatest folk heroes.  That he was murdered in cold blood by a department that is supposed to allow any suspected criminal the chance to surrender.  A department that is not supposed to stoop as low as the criminals they are chasing.  

Yet it is evident to anyone who has ears and eyes and an active internet connection that the LAPD stooped lower than Dorner could have ever imagined and took actions that justify every statement Dorner made in his manifesto.  Dorner tied up a bunch of people this week and shot a few cops (and their families), while the cops shot a few innocent people and burnt a man to death.  What makes one side right and one side wrong and who makes that judgement call?  

This is all without even bringing up the idea that the manhunt was about to start using drones in American air space to track and possibly assassinate the suspect.  This is a slippery slope we find ourselves in when talking heads on TV are suggesting that it is a good idea to use unmanned aerial drones in American air space, while other media figures are asking the question "If the cops did burn the place down on purpose, is there any way that could have been justified?"  

What in the world is wrong with our mass media that they are so uninformed such questions are even asked?  Is there any way to justify burning a man to death?  Yeah sure claim he was a witch!